Old Milwaukee Old Trash

 

While I was wondering through the southern tract earlier this week in a fruitless search for the emergence of Ghost Pipes, I found something else.

\It was a faded aluminum beer can that bore the Old Milwaukee logo.

I find odd single cans like that occasionally.

I also found the head of doll. I have no idea of its origin or provenance.

Later on, I discovered someone had cut the fence on the northern boundary where land has been cleared but never developed a year or so ago.

I came out later to repair the fence and to put the FWC boundary sign on the right side of  the fence and picked some additional trash.

I will check again on the Ghost Pipes later. A wet winter is predicted and that seems to bring them out.

 

FWC Meeting Today Was Encouraging

 I had a cordial meeting today with some FWC staff folks to discuss management issues affecting the Scrub Lupine restoration project.

The takeaways I got was that they would no longer send equipment down the path next the first planting area, would agree to conduct some temporary trimming to reduce the canopy overgrowth in some of the planting areas and will plan a more extensive removal and herbiciding of overgrowth within the next year as the budget allows.

They also said they would like to burn the site again and asked how that would affect the lupines. I referred them to Cheryl Peterson at Bok Jack Stout at UCF, who are much better informed than I am.  

I also briefly mentioned the trash pile near the southwest gate and tree fall along the fence lines.

I also reported recent hog damage and told them that there was probably a lot of background info they might find useful on the site's chronology on this blog.

Hog Damage Is More Extensive

 

While I was out checking trails today, I found a patch of extensive hog rooting along a section of the western fire lane.

The mystery is how the animals are getting in since the new fencing installed a few years ago seems to be a better barrier than strands of barbed wire.

In addition to this, in fire lanes in the scrub areas. there are a lot small excavations that look like maybe exploratory though whether hogs or some other animal is responsible is a mystery. I have never seen anything like it.

One more thing to discuss at next week's meeting with FWC folks.

   

Fall Discovery, Hogs & Orchids

 I was walking the trails today to discover traces of litter such as pieces of broken glass, metal and plastic from the site's heritage as a dump site.

I  also found some abandoned shell  casings from earlier hunting expeditions and fresher evidence of the need for a hunt.

Most of it was in the small bayhead in the southwest corner of the north tract.

There was obvious hog damage among the Cinnamon Ferns.

But there was more. The orchids are beginning to emerge and  I found a previously undiscovered  fruiting Dahoon Holly after all of  these years here. 

It was a successful expedition.

 

What We Got Heah Is A Failure To Coordinate

 

As I drove by the preserve this week, I noticed something disturbing,

The path around the endangered Scrub Lupine planting area had been disced. (see  Lupine  in taped area at right).

Some of the stakes at the boundary marking the plants had been ground up, but that wasn't the main concern.

One plant next to  this operation had bloomed this year. The seed pods had opened to disperse seeds onto the surrounding ground, The concern, which not be evident until next winter when a new crop of seedlings emerge, is whether this mechanical onslaught resulted in seeds buried so deep into the earth that they will never germinate.

I had discussed this issue with FWC staff and thought I had some understanding of efforts to keep vehicles out of that section of the preserve. 

For whatever reason things didn't work out that way. I put up signs to try to steer vehicles away from this area. The signs were ignored and removed.

Meanwhile, I was supposed to meet with FWC  staff this week to discuss management issues. The guy I was supposed to meet with bailed at the last minute and rescheduled for early June. 

If that meeting occurs, maybe I can make some inroads.in improving the situation out there.

Coordination to protect the lupine plant5ing areas would be at the top of my list, but there are other issues, such as dealing with the tree along  the north fence line and removing a pile of trash that has been sitting by one of the gates for a couple years.

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A Brutal Spring For Lupines

 The hot and dry weather the area has experienced in recent months has taken a toll on the  handful of Scrub Lupine seedlings that emerged this year.

None of the seedlings in the first and third planting areas survived. A few in the second planting area are still hanging on, though they are in more favorable areas with less leaf litter and canopy to affect their growth.

I am trying to get with the FWC folks to discuss improvement management with a view toward next year when what looks like a good crop of seeds has a chance to germinate.

Some areas have some leaf litter and the issue is how to remove/reduce the leaf litter without inadvertently distrurbing the seed bank.

Meanwhile, someone has put out 18 Sand Skink cover boards along the eastern fire lane in the north tract.

I put out between 60 and 70 boards between 2005 and 2007 and verified at the time that Lake Blue Scrub had a pretty healthy population.

Spring 'Arrives With Some Color And The Promise Of More

 

Spring here officially began earlier this week. Though the landscape still looks a bit dreary because of the current dry conditions--only recorded 0.15 of an inch of rain this month despite encouraging weather predictions accompanying each cold front--there are some hints of color here and there.

Some of it is showier than others.

 

What Lurks In The Bushes Outside The Fence?

 

Ancient Islands Group of Florida Sierra wanted to organize a Great American Cleanup event Saturday /

I suggested we take a crack at the area around Lake Blue Scrub. I knew there was some trash, but wasn't prepared for the amount that was present. 

We found tires, a mattress and box spring, an aquarium and bags and bags of beer bottles and similar debris.

There was also several hundred pounds of concrete debris that we left behind.

Later in the day I returned to see if the pile had been removed. I ran into one of the neighbors at the other end of Holton Road  and told me there had been dumping the night before of several bags of trash. One landed inside the fence and I retrieved it.

Cogon Grass Infestation Spreads

 

An infestation of Cogon Grass in a sandhill area at the southeast corner of the north tract seems to be expanding and may reach the eastern fire lane soon unless treatment begins.

Another section of this small sandhill patch contains the only population of Clitoria fragrans  on this site.

I once tried to occasionally dig up the grass to control it, but learned at a webinar I watched a couple of years ago that such an approach was futile and might encourage the spread. 

Another Lupine Season Begins; Forgotten Plants Flagged

 Another Scrub Lupine season has begun at the preserve this week, about on schedule.

The first seedlings typically appear in mid to late January and continue emerging into February.

The first three seedings I detected were outside the main planting areas along the edge of the heavily impacted east-west trail that is annually mowed even though it has never been overgrown in the 20 years or so I've been on the site.

In recent years the lupines growing along this path have had to have been clearly marked to avoid  being destroyed by mechanical onslaught.

I also flagged a three more lupines that apparently emerged last year, and either were never flagged or the flags was removed or destroyed.  

In a search earlier this week I also discovered a previous planting area that I had missed when I was asked by Bok's Cheryl Peterson last October  to remove cages around the plants to prevent the Eastern Cottontail Rabbits that live on this site from consuming them.

The lupines for the most part appear healthy and as I've noticed regularly some plants have growth with more vigor than others.

So far I have not found any seedlings in the southern planting area, which still has some surviving seedlings from last year's emergence.

The norther planting area contains plants of various ages.

  

Maybe A New Sign Someday

 

The sign at the southeast corner of the preserve's north tract is showing its age and the inevitable effects of having a southern exposure even though there is some shade to moderate the effects on the suns's rays.

I was wondering whether a new sign might be considered in a future budget to make the place look a little less neglected.

I was out documenting a couple of patches of  mistletoe, checking to see whether lupine seedlings had begun popping up--they had not--though I moved some of the existing flags to be near unflagged surviving plants from last year's crop in the southern planting area.

I also checked a section of the south tract for Ghost Pipes, but found nothing but an old shoe and an older beer can and some spots along the fire lane for further excavation. 

I also found a place where someone may be setting up camp along the fence line in the south tract.